


Rain, Rain Go Away (Come Again Another Day)

by Thine_Everlasting



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Insecurity, Light Angst, M/M, Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5246216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thine_Everlasting/pseuds/Thine_Everlasting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's pouring down rain in Starling City, but Oliver would rather be outside with his crimson speedster than anywhere else. </p><p>"The rain was still pouring, but Barry didn’t flinch at any of the lightning flashes anymore, engaged in Oliver’s own blue eyes that couldn’t hide their emotions this time."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rain, Rain Go Away (Come Again Another Day)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first fan fiction ever, so any constructive criticisms would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Inspired by the god-awful rain outside my window today, and me wondering why it never rains while our favorite vigilantes go patrolling. Plus, I can't help but imagine Barry sliding several feet every time he tries to stop running in the rain.
> 
> Turned out a bit angsty-er than I had envisioned, but I suppose it's not all rainbows and butterflies where I'm at in the shows either so...

Oliver’s week was shaping up to be pretty miserable. Laurel was still hell-bent on becoming a vigilante like Sara, despite Oliver’s many, many protests. Thea was completely enraged by her father’s deceit and refused to speak with her brother, who he suspected she still didn’t trust fully. Felicity hadn’t been seen in the Foundry for weeks, choosing to spend all her time with her new billionaire boyfriend, who Oliver still couldn’t trust. 

And it was raining. 

Diggle was helping Oliver hunt down a possible lead on a drug dealer trying to recreate the Vertigo formula. He was unsuccessful the first several times, but he still felt the need to test the highly concentrated, addictive drug on homeless in the Glades over the last couple weeks. Apparently, since nobody was dying per-say, Felicity figured the rest of ‘Team Arrow’ could handle it on their own.

Roy, although a great man to have his back in a fight, was not an expert in tracking down people through their wireless network or cell-phones. Diggle, an excellent friend and brother in arms, couldn't work Felicity’s program either, even if they did know who or where the dealer was. 

So, Oliver was stuck patrolling the East ends of the Glades as the rain poured down. His hood felt five pounds heavier with the water weight, his boots sloshed with every step. He was grateful for the mask Barry gave him the first time he was in Starling City, as the grease paint he used would have washed off by now. 

“Oliver, I’m calling it. There’s nobody out here in this weather,” Roy’s voice said in his coms unit as a boom of thunder resounded above. 

“Go home Roy, I’ll take care of it,” Oliver replied standing on yet another abandoned warehouse rooftop, peering in the skylight to see if there was a lab set up.

“You’re not going in? Dude, I know you’re the Arrow, but even you can’t stay out in this weather.”

“Roy. Go home. We’ll continue this tomorrow; see if the police have any more leads.”

“Fine, but stay out here any longer, and I’ll sic Felicity on you.”

Oliver frowned as the line went dead. Felicity probably wouldn’t bother with him, thinking he is all-too self-sacrificing to bother listening to her sense. They were probably out at some fancy restaurant Ray bought out just to impress her anyways. 

The problem was, Oliver knew he was going to catch something standing out in the November rain, but he couldn’t make himself go home. It felt too empty, even if he was sharing an apartment with Thea. He felt hopeless to help her as she got progressively angrier at Malcolm Merlyn, to the point where Oliver couldn’t recognize his once happy and naive sister. 

He felt powerless to help any of his friends. He saw how Diggle grew more distant as he wanted to spend more time with his newborn daughter and not risk his life for some illegal and insane mission for justice. Diggle was too selfless to leave, and Oliver was too selfish to let him go. Laurel was so distraught by Sara’s murder that she wanted to fight too, but she would only get herself killed. Roy stayed out of guilt for the officer he killed while under the Mirakuru Oliver indirectly brought to the city. 

Felicity… Oliver had been in love with her, no doubt, but she needed someone who could understand and love her without putting her in danger every night. Oliver hurt both of them by killing whatever they had before it could really begin, but he knew she would be better off without him, even if he regretted that choice now. 

Oliver knew self-doubt was dangerous. It made you second guess, and that’s what gets you killed in a fight. Of course, none of that could stop his thoughts from eating him up on the inside. He had failed everyone who was close to him one way or another: his mother dead, his sister broken, his friends trapped in a life of lies because of him.

It was easier to stay out all night protecting the city instead of dealing with his own life. At least he didn’t personally know everyone he had failed in this city. 

Oliver sat on the edge of the roof and stared down at the alley. Rain dripped down his hood and off his nose, falling falling until it disappeared in the dumpsters below. Oliver wished he could have stayed solo; self-sufficient without dragging civilians into his fight. He wished there was someone he couldn’t hurt. 

Bright, strobing lightning blinded him momentarily as he looked at the city skyline. A glimpse of red caught his attention before disappearing behind another building. Reappearing almost immediately around the corner, Oliver watched as the streak ran straight towards his position on the roof top, until suddenly there was a man in a crimson suit skidding past him. 

“Hey Oliv-WOAH,” shouted a familiar voice as the Flash nearly slid off the roof in an effort to stop. 

Oliver whirled around to catch the idiot before he pitched off the roof and started when he realized he was nose to nose with the hero in his arms. 

“Uh hi. Fancy seeing you here,” Barry felt himself flush as, chest to chest, Oliver stared with his best poker-face. Barry unconsciously moved his hands to grasp Oliver’s biceps, which startled the Starling City vigilante into releasing him. He took a step back, and Barry felt himself idly missing the warmth of Oliver against him.

“What are you doing here Barry?” Oliver turned away so Barry was looking at his probably very cold shoulder, “Now’s not a good time.”

“What, I’m not allowed to visit? Besides, I’ll called up the Arrow Cave to find out where you were. Roy told me what you’re doing, which is apparently heroically freezing to death under the pretense of recon.” 

“I’m patrolling. The Glades aren’t safe for anyone, especially this time if night.”

“Oliver! Look around you! There’s nobody stupid enough to be out here in this storm, except you apparently,” Barry flinched as another lightning strike illuminated his face and rumbled around them.

Oliver sighed and continued to stare straight ahead. “You still haven’t answered my question Barry. Why are you here in Starling? Last I heard there were some of your nasty ‘metas’ that needed handling.” 

“Slow week,” Barry shifted the pressure on his feet. “Do I need an excuse to see my fellow city-guardian?” 

Oliver eyed him suspiciously, “Yes.”

It was Barry’s turn to let out a small huff, “I needed some time to process some things, away from Central.”

That admittance made Oliver fully face the younger man. What was bothering him so much? Why couldn’t he talk to his many friends in Central he was sure would be more than willing to help?

Barry had always seemed so unfailingly optimistic: a big, bright beam of sunshine to save Central City. It worrying and wrong to see him uncomfortable and, ironically, running from his problems.

“What happened, Barry?” Oliver asked, taking a step forward into his space, a bit too close to his face. Belatedly, he realized he slipped into his Arrow voice, the one the used to interrogate criminals and intimidate them into talking. 

Barry leaned forward and didn’t step back, but his face twisted into something far less pleasant, “I’m not a criminal, you can’t force information out of me. I’m not the liar here! I’ve had enough people break my trust, I don’t need you to turn away from me too.” They stared into the other’s eyes; Oliver surprised at Barry’s outburst, and Barry challenging Oliver to say something. 

Oliver was finally the one to back off and turn his head. He said, much softer than last time, “I’m sorry Barry, but what’s wrong? I thought things were going well in Central City.” Better than here at least. 

There was a derisive snort from the man in red, “Sure, things are going Wells.”

“What?” 

“Excuse the pun,” Oliver stared as Barry gave a wry smile at his own joke, “but I’m getting close to the man in the yellow, the man who killed my mom. It’s… It’s Dr. Wells.” There was no hint of amusement left on his face. 

“Wells? I thought he was helping you?” Not that that meant anything, as Oliver’s previous experiences on (and off) the island taught him.

“Yeah, so did I, but Joe and I know its him. He has to be another speedster, there’s no way he’d be able to know everything he does if he wasn’t. He’s trying to make me faster to help him somehow.” Barry was looking increasingly distressed as he continued, “Joe says we can’t let him know we’re on to him, but I’m so sick of playing nice! He killed my mother! I can’t look at him without seeing her die.” 

He had pulled off his mask as he talked, running his hand across his face and tugging at his hair. Barry dropped onto the low wall ringing the edge of the roof, looking defeated as he stared down with water dripping over his features. Oliver felt an urge to pull him up and wrap him in a hug that he quickly suppressed. He shook his head, absolutely no need to go down that road. 

“Oliver, I just, I can’t stay in Central like that. Caitlin and Cisco don’t even know! Joe thinks they may be helping Wells with whatever he’s trying to do. I don’t know who to trust anymore!” Barry looked up at Oliver, his eyelashes clumping together from either the wet of the rain or his eyes.

The Arrow, a man so used to betrayal of trust himself, had no response. There was no way to make this easier for Barry and alleviate the gaping hole in his heart left by a man he thought was his friend. It was a feeling Oliver Queen was all too familiar with but had no experience in fixing. 

Barry took his lack of a response as a signal to leave. “I’m sorry for dumping all this on you. I’m sure you’re super busy saving Starling and the like,” Barry stood up, reverting to his natural state of uncomfortable, apologetic awkward, “I can just go. I don’t know, I think I just needed to off-load. Thanks for listening, but I’m going to go. See you at the next super-vigilante meeting or something.”

Oliver managed to reach out and grab his shoulder before he went super speed to run away from the vigilante he just dumped all his problems on. Oliver spun Barry around so he faced him dead on with a hand nearing his neck and another dangerously close to the small of his back.

“Look at me Barry,” Oliver used a gentle hand on Barry cheek to push his face to look him in the eyes, “there is nothing you have to apologize for.” Barry let out a breath Oliver felt on the wrist of the hand still resting on his cheek.

“I don’t know why I came here. I’ll leave, let you get back to business.” 

“No Barry, listen to me. You can come to me for anything. We’re partners remember? If you need someone to talk to, I’m here, even if it’s three AM, and we’ve been standing on a roof in the pouring rain for half an hour.”

“As I recall, that part is your fault,” Barry sniffled out. 

“Even then, I’ll be here if you need me, okay? You saved me after knowing me for just a day from the mystery blood coagulants, and I was a major jerk to you most of the time. You saved me almost every day since with this mask guarding my identity from my enemies. You saved me and my friends from the crazy with the weaponized boomerangs. No matter what it is, I will always be here for you Barry, because you are the true hero. You bring hope to everyone you save in Central City, and to me.”

“I… I don’t know what to say Oliver, but thank you. Thank you.” 

The conversation fell silent but neither of them moved It was too much staring into Barry’s beautiful green eyes when they were staring at him with such unveiled adoration. The rain was still pouring, but Barry didn’t flinch at any of the lightning flashes anymore, engaged in Oliver’s own blue eyes that couldn’t hide their emotions this time. Oliver was feeling so overwhelmed with having this man who trusted him so much, and who Oliver actually trusted in return.

Oliver shut his eyes to hold in the moment and to block out all the emotions he could feel from Barry, but Oliver knew there would be no forgetting it. Pressure on his lips quick as a flash caused his eyes to snap open again and a gasp leave his lips in surprise. Barry was gone, a red streak of light blurring through the streets of the Glades, the only brightness and color in the desolate world Oliver was in. He brought a timid hand to brush across his lips, still feeling the pressure of Barry’s farewell.

As he gazed at the city we was supposed to protect and imagined the people within it, he knew no certainties. But as he watched the path of red lightning cut through the city, he knew for once there was at least one person he hadn’t failed.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought in the comments or just leave a Kudos if you like! 
> 
> This was a blast to write, so I enjoyed this no matter what. Look forward to posting more on the site!
> 
> \- A


End file.
